


Mabel’s All-in-One Guide to be Being a Shooting Star: How to Avoid Being Caught and Other Tips You Should Know

by imnotoverlyobsessive



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Also there’s gore now, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universes, Blood and Gore, Brother-Sister Relationships, Brother/Brother Incest, Don't worry she’ll get over it, F/M, Incest, Is it incest if you’re banging your twin bro’s alternate self?, Manipulative Relationship, Possessive Behavior, Reverse Dipper Pines/Mabel Pines, Reverse Falls, Reverse Pines, Smut, Unhealthy Relationships, Unrequited Love, but I mean it’s consensual to be fair, but he gets better I promise, but maybe I only think it’s mild because I’ve seen game of thrones, but only at first, but only like some mild gore, cause RD is a little shit, dom Dipper is best Dipper, i mean kinda, they gon fuck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:48:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29552361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imnotoverlyobsessive/pseuds/imnotoverlyobsessive
Summary: A handy-dandy guide for when you’re saved/kidnapped by the alternate version of the twin brother you have an unrequited romantic love for! Learn how to avoid, evade, and convince the guy to be a better person!*Exclusions apply.
Relationships: Dipper Gleeful/Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines/Mabel Pines, past dipper gleeful/Mabel gleeful, reverse dipper pines/Mabel pines - Relationship
Comments: 11
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the brainchild of myself and the amazing Pacific_Ship, beta’d by her and EOF!
> 
> Also: yes, this relationship isn’t healthy in some respects. It’s consensual, but it’s unhealthy. But like, this is a fuckin pinecest fic, do you really expect it to be healthy?

Prologue 

_You are my god, you are my soul; you’re my savior in a devil’s robe… you are my drug, my miracle; you are my cure in this infected world, and I can’t exist without you. I’m dying here without you._ \- In This Moment, Bones

Dipper Gleeful hated funerals. They were pointless, frivolous, unnecessary things, in his opinion. Worse yet, in this particular case, he had difficulty concealing his own vulnerability.

His parents sobbed openly. Many of the townsfolk were crying, too. Dipper wasn’t, though. 

He had only ever truly loved one person, and that person had just been lowered into the ground before his eyes. He was careful to keep his face emotionless; the people of Gravity Falls had, after all, seen far too much emotion from him when Mabel had been killed.

He’d screamed. He’d sobbed. He’d clutched at her body as she bled out onto his clothes. He’d tried to stop the bleeding, begged her to stay, commanded Will to save her- everything. He’d done everything, and still, she was dead. 

For the next three years, he searched for a way to revive her, to bring her back to him, but to no avail. She was gone, and there was nothing that could be done to bring her back. 

Still, though, he needed her. He ached for her. He needed her more than he needed oxygen. More than food. More than water. More than anything. And he would get her back. He had to. There had to be a way. He refused to exist without her. He simply _refused_.

He missed her so intensely there was an emptiness within him that he hadn’t been able to shake since the warmth had faded from her body. He missed everything about her. He missed the smile she saved just for him. He missed the way her hair fell down her back, and the way her hips swayed as she walked. He missed the lilt in her voice when she was up to something, and the way she gripped his hair when they kissed. He missed the way she’d moan for him as he thrust himself inside her, beg him to let her cum only to be denied. He even missed the way she used him for her own gain, her cruel manipulations. He missed the way she toyed with him, the way she ground his heart into dust beneath her heels. There was nothing he didn’t miss about her. His Mabel, his twin. His everything. 

He read about it before he found it. Another universe. Another world. Another him, and also…

Another Mabel. 

He scoured the world for a way to get through but when he finally found it, he discovered it had been right below his feet the whole time. Deep beneath the town, in an underground cave where the earth was steeped in magic, there was a pool. A portal. A portal that he himself could harness the power of, take with him wherever he pleased; provided he had a vial of the water with him, of course. And in this pool, he saw an image.

An image of _her_. The woman he ached for. Only she was different. Her smile was easy and carefree. She wasn’t refined or dignified, from what he could tell. This… this other Mabel, as he had come to think of her, she wasn’t the same as the one he’d lost.

No, she wasn’t the same as the one he’d lost. But this girl, this lovely, adorable, perfect imitation of the sister he’d loved so dearly, she looked… fragile. Like she’d break if he so much as brushed up against her. How had nothing happened to her?

His Mabel, her powers only had an equal in his own. Despite that, though, she’d been killed right before his eyes. All that power, and she’d been snuffed out like a candle in the wind.

The other Mabel was laughing freely in the pool, and he reached out to touch her image, cursing the way it distorted when his fingers brushed the surface of the water. This Mabel, she’d be his. And this time? This time, he’d never let anything happen to her. Nobody would touch her again. Nobody but him. 

He saw flashes of a boy who looked like him, and Mabel was smiling at him in this sad, longing sort of way, and the boy was completely oblivious. Did the imbecile not know what he had? This beautiful, incredible girl, and he didn’t have any idea, did he?

How dare this idiot of a boy waltz around like he owned the world, like he had any right to resemble Dipper, to act as if they were on equal footing? Dipper was infinitely superior; he was far more powerful, for one, and certainly more attractive, and evidently, far more intelligent, too, because It was clear that he wasn’t paying Mabel nearly enough attention, and, to his fury, Mabel’s expression turned mournful when she gazed at her brother. How infuriating. It was clear that she was in love with him, and yet the fool was wasting it! How could he not adore every sigh, every look? How could he not spend his every waking moment touching her, pleasing her? She’d obviously let him, so why wasn’t he fucking _doing it_?

He wanted to throttle the boy, scream at him for making Mabel feel an ounce of pain. Dipper would never take her for granted that way. He’d cherish her the way her idiot of a brother should’ve been doing.

He’d make her fall for him. He had to. There was nothing he wasn’t willing to do, wasn’t willing to give up, no one he wasn’t willing to get rid of. He’d do anything, _anything_ to make her his.

He’d protect her. He’d keep her safe. He’d give her everything her heart desired. She had to love him. She just had to. He didn’t know what he’d do if she never loved him. 

She’d love him, and they would belong to each other.

Forever.

Dipper took a breath, clutched the vial he kept in his pocket, and stepped into the pool. 


	2. Just for the Summer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First look at Mabel! This one’s a bit sad, sorry. Or you’re welcome, if you’re Pacific_Ship. Big thanks to her and EOF for betaing and brainstorming!

Chapter One: Just for the Summer 

_You’re never gonna love me, so what’s the use? What’s the point in playing a game you’re gonna lose? What’s the point in saying you love me like a friend? What’s the point in saying it’s never gonna end?_ \- Marina and the Diamonds, Lies

Mabel was in a rut. Her boyfriend- no, it was _ex_ -boyfriend by that point, huh? He’d dumped her, after all. Her _ex-_ boyfriend was a dick. And Mabel didn’t jump to these types of conclusions lightly, either. When Mabel was of the opinion that someone was a dick, they weren’t just a dick, they were a Dick™ with a capital D. 

Such was the case with Andrew Craddock (or AC, as she’d taken to calling him a few times; as it turns out, he was not as cool as his initials implied). Andrew was a Dick™. Like yeah, they’d been dating for, like, a month, month and a half maybe. And sure, maybe lots of nineteen-year-old college freshmen are willing to jump into bed with anything that moved, which was perfectly fine, but while Mabel was okay with holding hands and making out and maybe even the occasional butt grab, she was _not_ okay with her boyfriend trying to grope her during a movie when she’d said she wasn’t ready for that sort of thing yet.

So she didn’t wanna sleep with him right off. Big whoop. She reiterated this to him, of course. And then! And then the absolute butthole had pointed to Clueless (the movie they’d been watching, cause it’s a mother-flippin’ _classic_ , aight?) and said, “ya hear that, Mabel? You’re just a virgin who can’t drive!” and then the dude straight up stormed out of her dorm. Like. What? Seriously, who even _does_ that?

Also, Mabel could _absolutely_ drive. She had her license and everything. It was just Mabel really liked looking at the UC Santa Cruz campus (go Slugs, woooo) while riding her bike, and cars were expensive anyway, plus she didn’t really need one. She lived on campus, so a bike ride to and from class or the library or the cafe or whatever, it was all nice. It was fun. And economical. And better for the environment. It was a win-win-win situation!

And yeah, okay, fine, she was a virgin, but several of her friends were still virgins, so it wasn’t like… this big huge deal, it really wasn’t. 

At least, that’s what Mabel had thought.

Until Andrew decided he wanted to be a Dick™. 

And then, after all that, she’d gotten an email from her Painting 101 professor that her final was… acceptable, but if she wanted to make it into 102, she needed to have a little something extra. So Mabel had to scrounge up an extra credit project at the last minute before the grades were in for the summer. 

She’d passed, thankfully, and her professor had approved her for 102, but even so…

Mabel had perhaps taken part in too many clubs (UC Santa Cruz’s LBGTQ+ club, two separate environmental clubs, an animal advocacy club, and a club that made crafts for kids in hospitals), She loved them all, she really did, but five clubs was a _lot_ , and it was tiring. She probably wouldn’t go back to all of them when she returned in the fall, but she was still very much on the fence about which clubs specifically she should stay in. 

Dipper was… Dipper was Dipper. He’d never been anything but. He’d come out as gay their senior year of high school. That was fine with Mabel. She didn’t mind it. Really, she didn’t. Sure, she mighta kinda sorta had teensy little feelings for him that were maybe slightly a bit on the not-so-platonic side of things, but just a bit, okay?

When Andrew had asked her out, she’d said yes, because, well. Get under someone to get over someone, right? That’s what one of her friends had said. And no hate on her friend, ‘cause her friend was the bomb dot com, but like. Her friend was one of those aforementioned college freshmen who was totally cool about jumping into bed with anything that moved, which was fine for some people, but, well…

Kissing Andrew felt weird. It felt _wrong_. He didn’t make her knees tremble, and he didn’t make her sigh blissfully. She’d hated being alone with him, because he’d always, _always_ make a move on her, like, it was ridiculous how consistent he was about that, and whenever he kissed her, she’d just…

Well, there was no way around it, was there? She wished he was Dipper. Whenever Andrew kissed her, she spent every second thinking about Dipper, her twin bro, her best bud. Absolutely the worst possible person for her to fall in love with, but Mabel had never been one to play by the rules, and that didn’t appear to be any different in matters of the heart, either. 

‘Cause falling in love with one’s twin brother who just so happened to be of the homosexual persuasion broke pretty much every rule in the rule book. If there was a rule book. Which there wasn’t. But maybe it would be better if there were, because then, like, she’d feel better about the set social norms and where she was in relation to them. Not that she thought she was in the green with her not-at-all platonic feelings for her bro bro, of course. She knew that. She knew it was kookoo bananas, okay? She knew. 

But she couldn’t help it. He was everything to her, and pretending she’d felt something she didn’t for Andrew had felt all wrong, like she’d been going against everything her heart and soul yearned for. Which was probably because she _was_ going against everything her heart and soul yearned for. But it wasn’t exactly like she had a choice. It was either go against everything she wanted or do nothing, and Mabel had never been particularly good at doing nothing.

Sometimes, a bit of moping becomes necessary. Sometimes, you just need to listen to sad music and cry for a while to process your emotions. 

And so, Mabel found herself walking around Gravity Falls, which, in retrospect, was maaaaaaybe not the best place for her to visit in an effort to forget about her very romantic love for her gay twin brother, with whom she had had more adventures in Gravity Falls than she could count. Staring out at the lake, Mabel wondered if her feelings for Dipper began there, in that small town surrounded by trees and teeming with mystery.

Thinking she heard a rustling in the bushes behind her, she whipped her head around, only to find nothing. No one. She was alone, it would seem. She’d always been alone, ever since she and Dipper had gone off to college separately. She’d stayed in California. He’d gone off to some tech college or other on the east coast, and was having better luck with guys than she was.

Dipper had a boyfriend. He loved his boyfriend. He’d told her so just a few nights prior. Mabel had fought to keep her voice even, pretended to hear her roommate calling her from the living room, and promptly hung up. Her roommates weren’t even home.

Mabel had sobbed into her pillow until her eyelids were raw.

Candy and Grenda weren’t in town. They were coming home for the summer at some point, but not yet. Mabel had just needed to get out. She loved Santa Cruz, but she needed to get out.

Just for the summer. Just for awhile. Just to purge herself of her feelings for Dipper so she could finally, _finally_ move on.

But first, she needed to cry. She needed a _place_ to cry. So she got on her bike and, with one last look at the setting sun reflecting off the still water of the lake, Mabel rode off in the direction of the Shack.

* * *

The sky was a bit darker by the time she got to the Shack, resting her bike against the porch and walking off into the trees, fallen leaves and grass crunching beneath her sneakers. It wasn’t terribly dark outside, since it was only, like, six-ish, but the trees shielded some of the sunlight, and Mabel was grateful she’d thought to shove a flashlight in her backpack before she left. She doubted she’d need it, but hey. The night was young.

She trudged through the forest, stepping over fallen branches before finding a clearing that felt… familiar. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it felt as if she’d been there before. It was as good a place as any, she supposed.

Mabel took off her backpack, leaned against a tree trunk, and slid down to sit on the leaves. She unzipped the front pocket of her backpack and pulled out her wallet (Hello Kitty with a whole bunch of lace and rhinestones expertly glued on by yours truly). Opening it, she stared at the picture she had of her and Dipper, grinning in front of the Mystery Shack on their thirteenth birthday.

It had been better then. Simpler. Everything was simpler before she fell in love with him. 

If Mabel closed her eyes, she became fifteen again. Young and stupid and so, _so_ naïve. It was like everything had changed overnight. One day, she looked at Dipper, and her feelings were completely platonic, as far as she was aware. The next, they were anything but.

She’d nearly broken down when they were sixteen. She was sitting with him on the roof of their house on a Saturday night, looking out at the lights of the city. They blocked out most of the stars, but the moon was still bright. 

She made a joke, and when he laughed, she looked over at him, and he was just… he was beautiful. There was no other word for it. He was just beautiful. There wasn’t much light, but what light there was illuminated his face as he smiled at her. In that moment, she’d almost lost it. She’d almost told him how she felt. Almost kissed him. She’d been inching closer to him, and it was entirely subconscious. But then, their mom had called for them, and they’d gone back inside.

Two years later, he came out as gay. And Mabel was so, _so_ relieved that she’d never ruined their relationship by telling him she loved him in a way she never should’ve loved him.

But she did, and there was no helping it. She’d fought against it, but in the end, she probably couldn’t have prevented it or avoided it. There was nothing she could’ve done. 

Mabel was convinced that she’d been destined to fall in love with Dipper. And maybe, in another life, he could’ve loved her, too. But not this one. Never this one.

She didn’t realize she’d been crying until a tear plopped onto the picture of her and Dipper. Right on Dipper’s stupid thirteen-year-old face, too. She would’ve laughed if she hadn’t been so upset.

“Mabel?” a voice said, not far from where she sat. “Is that you?”

Swiping away her tears as quickly as she could, she looked up.

“ _Jeff_?” It had never occurred to Mabel she’d see any of the gnomes again.

He approached her. His beard was longer, she noticed. “Been awhile,” he observed. 

“Seven years,” she agreed with a small nod. “How, uh… how’ve you been?”

He shrugged. “Been better, been worse. I’m not the leader of the gnomes anymore. Haven’t seen ‘em in a long time.”

“Oh, I’m… sorry to hear that,” she said, not feeling sorry in the slightest. Maybe if she seemed disinterested, he’d leave her alone and she could get back to her very important business, which was, of course, crying her eyes out and staring miserably at Dipper’s picture.

“Ah, well. Such is life.” There was silence for a moment, and he spoke again, his tone much snappier than it had been before. “I _said_ , ‘such is life’.”

There was a little “oh!” from the trees behind her, and then a rustling, and then something was put over her head, and she screamed.

The last thing she saw before the cloth fell over her eyes was Jeff’s smirking face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gee idk man wtf do you think the gnomes are up to


	3. Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This week, on wedding crashers...
> 
> Also TW for gore, attempted forced marriage, vaguely mentioned sexual assault, and straight up murder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Edward-or-Ford and Pacific_Ship for being awesome!

Chapter Two: Eyes 

_I’m coming for you, and I’m making war._ \- Fall Out Boy, Irresistible 

Mabel had imagined her wedding a million times. She’d imagined her dress, the flowers, the music, the lights- everything. What girl hadn’t? Mostly, though, she’d imagined the groom. It was always Dipper. It always ended up being Dipper. The first time she imagined her wedding, it was Dipper (although at the time, it was just ten-year-old Dipper with longer legs), although she hadn’t really understood why. Not until much later in her life, anyway.

The last time something like this had happened, Dipper had come to save her. He’d always come to save her. Dipper had always been there for her, and her for him. 

But Dipper wasn’t coming. Not this time. She was alone. Really and truly alone. The gnomes wanted her for their queen. They’d never stopped, she supposed. And Dipper was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t coming for her.

“... and do you, Mabel Pines, take us, the gnomes, to be your husbands for all time?” Jeff was spouting off nonsense. Surely he didn’t think Mabel was just going to go along with a forced marriage just because he’d tied her up!

Except yes, he very clearly expected that exact thing, because as soon as they’d yanked the sack from over her head and she saw herself to be standing in an entirely different clearing than the one she’d been in previously, they’d shoved an exceedingly tacky wedding dress that had very clearly been made for her twelve-year-old self as far as they could up her body. They’d neglected to remove her clothes (for which Mabel thanked whatever deity presided over Gravity Falls), however, saying that she was fighting too hard and that there wasn’t enough time anyway, and they’d only been able to get the dress up to her hips, the ridiculous puffy sleeves drooping down her thighs. 

They’d tied her arms to her sides, and the ropes were painful, but she ignored it. Jeff was looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

She sent him a glare that could’ve killed a zombie, her gaze silent and unblinking.

Dipper wasn’t coming. He wasn’t going to save her. Not this time. Maybe not ever again.

She’d have to save herself.

And then she brought her foot back as far as she could in that stupid flippin’ dress, and punted the stupid little bastard like a damn soccer ball. He made a little “euf!” sound when the toe of her sneaker connected with his abdomen, and he hit a tree trunk with a _thwack_ , sliding down to the ground. He wasn’t unconscious (dammit, that would’ve been one less of the little fuckers to deal with), but he was definitely winded.

“You want a queen? I’ll show you a freakin’ queen, you little assholes!” she shouted. The gnomes were frozen for a second, and then they ran at her through the grass as fast as their stubby legs could carry them.

She kicked a second, then a third, and a fourth, sending each one somersaulting through the air. By the time she was rearing her leg back to kick the fifth, however, too many of them had swarmed her at once, climbing up her dress -no, _not_ her dress, _their_ dress, it didn’t even freaking _fit_ her- and making her tumble to the ground. Her head thunked against the ground, and that definitely hadn’t been a good sound, she didn’t think. In fact, suddenly she couldn’t think clearly at all, hardly even registering the rock that scratched her arm.

Jeff hobbled over to where she lay on her stomach, a furious expression his face.

“You _dare-_ “ he cut himself off. “We are to be your _husbands_! You will be our queen, yes, and you’ll make a fine one once you aren’t so… willful, but you must treat us with respect!”

Mabel could barely register his words. Her head was spinning, and he was feeling terribly woozy. She’d fainted once before, when a nurse had taken a blood test and she’d been on her period. She could tell it was going to happen again.

She was _not_ looking forward to it. She’d been so damn nauseous afterwards, for, like, half an hour, she hadn’t even been able to go home right away, and seriously, what was that about-

Jeff’s words finally clicked in her poor, addled brain. Respect? _Respect_?

“Fuck you,” she muttered furiously, her voice barely above a whisper. He heard her, though, because even with her fuzzy vision, she could see him grinning at her in a way that made her feel even sicker than she already did, which was no small amount, given the very obvious concussion she knew she had.

“Actually,” he said with the creepiest smirk she’d ever seen, “I’d rather fuck _you_.” Mabel thought she was going to vomit, surely she was going to vomit all over his stupid gnome-sized shoes.

But then, a gnome (a gnome? Why was he all red? Were they usually all red? No, right? No, wait- that was… that was _blood_! He was covered in blood! Holy moley, she’d never seen that much blood all at once, what in the hell-) stumbled out of the trees and into Mabel’s line of sight, and it took her a second to remember that the world wasn’t sideways, it was just that the side of her face was smushed against the grass, that was all.

“I’m sorry, Jeff,” the blood-gnome panted as Jeff stared at him, slack-jawed. He’d probably never seen that much blood at once, either. “We tried, we tried to stop him, but-“

And then, the strangest thing happened. The blood-gnome, still panting at the edge of forest, he exploded. As in he actually, legitimately, honest-to-goodness exploded. There was blood splatter on the ground and on the trees; even Mabel and her fuzzy vision could tell that. 

That wasn’t the weirdest thing, though. The weirdest thing was that there was a figure. She was pretty sure it was a figure. No, no, that was definitely a figure. Except… he was floating? Yes, definitely floating. And glowing, too, it seemed. How odd.

And then the world went dark.

* * *

“How dare you?” demanded a calm voice that almost seemed to vibrate. Or perhaps it made the very _air_ vibrate. Mabel was too unconscious to be able to tell, so kindly forgive her inability to provide input.

The floating figure moved towards the center of the clearing, his eyes glowing a strange shade of blue there wasn’t a name for.

“Why-“ Jeff sputtered, scrambling backwards. The figure was tall (although perhaps that was primarily the fact that he was floating in midair; if not tall, he most certainly appeared to be long), remarkably well-dressed, and quite handsome, his expertly styled, slicked-back hair revealing a strange birthmark on his forehead. His well-tailored dark navy suit was pristine, except for a small, gnome-sized arrow sticking out of his shoulder, and another out of his side. 

There was blood splatter on his shoes.

Some dripped into the grass. 

“Who _are_ you?” Jeff murmured, horrified. “No, wait… _Dipper_?” The other gnomes were moving away from Mabel’s unconscious body, crowding fearfully behind Jeff. 

A twisted grin split the figure’s -Dipper’s- face.

“In a way,” he said flippantly, a wall of earth rising around the clearing, nearing the treetops. “Not that it’ll matter to you in a moment.”

And then, Dipper inclined his head slightly, barely enough to even be perceived. When he did, however, another one of the gnomes burst like a balloon that had been popped.

He hadn’t had time to scream. The others all screamed, though, covered in his blood. They needn’t have bothered, however, for the next second, another burst, and then another, and another.

It took Jeff several seconds (and several exploded gnomes) to react. “You can take her!” He shouted, distraught, his entire front caked with blood. Much had seeped into his clothes, while some was still dripping off of him. “Please, w- we don’t want any trouble!”

Dipper paid him no mind. He didn’t even appear to be hearing the gnome speak at all.

“Just go, please, you can have her if you just go away!” Jeff was following Dipper around as he floated, frantically trying to convince him to stop.

Except, most of the gnomes were already dead. The remaining few were screaming, running around the edges of the walls, desperately trying to climb them. Some were trying to dig their way out through the walls. Others were simply looking for a soft spot in the earth, seeing if they could push through. One was even trying to find a way underneath. None were successful, of course. The walls were so firmly packed with dirt they were practically airtight. There was simply no getting through, around, under, or over.

“Please!” Jeff called out again, looking around frantically at the others scurrying along the edges of the walls.

With a soft exhale, Dipper made each of the dozen or so remaining gnomes burst simultaneously. 

All but Jeff, of course. 

“You’re their leader, I take it?” he mused, turning to look down at Jeff with a tilt of his head, his face condescending and furious. “Or you _were_ their leader, I suppose,” he smirked at that. That same horrifying, twisted smirk that had crossed his features before.

Jeff didn’t speak, only backed away shakily.

“Please,” he begged. “I- I’ll never go near her again. I’ll never go near _anyone_ again, if that’s what you want. Take me as a prisoner if you want!”

Dipper didn’t speak for a moment. “You hurt her,” he murmured.

“N- no, I never-“

“Don’t lie.” His voice was a terrifying rumble, and it seemed almost as if the very ground shook. “You _hurt_ her,” he said again, the fury more evident in his tone then. “You _touched_ her. Worse yet, you said… what was it now?” He tapped his chin with a long, slender finger. “Oh, that’s right. You said you wanted to fuck her, didn’t you?”

“I- I didn’t- we didn’t know-“

“I’d have killed you if you’d done even _one_ of those things,” Dipper said. “You tried to claim her as yours. You thought you had that right. No one has that right.” Suddenly, Jeff began to glow, too, and then he was rising into the air, finally looking Dipper directly in the eyes, shining a solid, terrifying blue. There were no irises, no pupils- only the blue glow. 

“No one has that right,” Dipper repeated. “No one but me.”

Jeff tried to speak, but he couldn’t. His airway had begun to close, only getting just enough air to keep him alive, if only for a few more seconds. Suddenly, Dipper removed a knife from within his clothes. It shone in the light of the sun setting behind the treetops.

In a rash of silver and the dark blue of Dipper’s sleeve, Jeff’s throat was slit open, only… no blood spilled, his slit throat glowing. Jeff couldn’t move. He was frozen. His blood was still in his body, but for how long?

Dipper lowered himself to the ground, the toes of his feet crunching the grass, followed by his heels. He’d kept the grass surrounding Mabel free of blood. He hadn’t wanted to stain any part of her. Not even her clothes. Sneering at the too-small wedding dress, he sliced through the fabric with the knife. It only had a few droplets of Jeff’s blood on it, after all.

Picking Mabel up gingerly, one arm behind her shoulders and the other beneath her knees, Dipper rose up again so Jeff could see them.

Dipper gently turned Mabel’s face towards him, holding her lower body up with his power as he lifted his hand to touch her face. Cupping her cheek in his hand, he stroked his thumb across her cheek, gazing at her face adoringly with his terrifying, glowing eyes.

“ _Mabel_ ,” he whispered reverently, smiling blissfully, and it almost looked as if his eyes were welling with tears. “I finally found you. I’ve been looking for you for so long.” He leaned down, brushing his lips over the hair that hung over her forehead so gently it was barely a caress.

Jeff looked on in horror as Dipper raised his eyes back up to him, his arm returning to its place under Mabel’s knees, her head falling against his chest.

“She will never be yours. She is _mine_ ,” he said in a fierce whisper, and then blood gushed from Jeff’s neck, splashing into the grass. His lifeless body fell to the ground with a sickening _thud_ , and Dipper clutched Mabel tightly against his body.

 _Finally_. She was finally in his arms again. He’d keep her safe. He’d make her happy. He’d give her everything. Anything. 

And she’d love him. She had to. He _needed_ her to.

Closing his eyes in concentration, the vial of water he’d taken from the portal began to glow brightly, a different sort of glow than his eyes, and then they were gone, and the wall of earth collapsed back into the ground as if it had never been there at all. 

All that remained were the ripped wedding dress, the splattered blood of the gnomes, and Jeff’s corpse. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh I wrote it and I still think he’s hella sexy.


	4. Not Dipper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Q&A with RD!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, as always, to Edward-or-Ford and Pacific_Ship!

Chapter Three: Not Dipper 

_He’s so tall and handsome as hell; he’s so bad but he does it so well. I can see the end as it begins._ \- Taylor Swift, Wildest Dreams

Warmth. 

Warmth and safety. 

Those were the first things Mabel noticed when she woke up for those few brief seconds, the first things she could recall feeling. She was too tired to open her eyes, and her head was freaking _killing_ her, but there was warmth seeping into her skin like melted butter into bread, and something smelled remarkably good.

It wasn’t a familiar smell, not by any means, but she found she liked it quite a lot. She turned her face towards the warm, smooth fabric the scent was coming from, nuzzling it happily with a small smile.

It didn’t help her killer headache, of course, but her bed or whatever it was, it smelled _goooooood_ , and she was all for it. 

She felt as if nothing could touch her, there in that little bubble of delicious-smelling warmth, and she wondered idly if Dipper was around, because she only ever felt so happy and safe when she was with him. 

When had she seen him last, again? Mabel couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember anything, really.

Oh well. Whatever. She was warm. She was safe. She was comfortable. She was happy. She smiled again, just a little bit, as her thoughts faded when she lost consciousness again. 

She would not be so content when she woke the second time.

* * *

There was a throbbing in her skull. An intense kind, particularly in her temples and behind her eyes. It hurt worse when she opened her eyes, and it took them several rapid blinks to adjust to lights that were actually quite dim, but with her concussion headache, they seemed ridiculously bright against the blue ceiling. 

“Yeesh,” she muttered, sitting up on the… was that a _chaise_? Yup, okay, that was definitely a chaise. She’d never even seen one in person; those things were for fancy people. Mabel had always been many things, but fancy most certainly wasn’t one of them.

Anyway, she was sitting up on the super-duper fancy chaise, her hands supporting her. “My head, what in the…” Dammit, her wrists and arms hurt, too, those were, ugh, were those rope marks? They sure _looked_ like rope marks. 

There was a sound nearby when she spoke loud enough to be heard, but Mabel’s head was throbbing so loudly in her ears that she couldn’t hear much of anything. She massaged the skin on her wrists, trying to get the soreness to dissipate. It didn’t. 

And then the whole thing came rushing back.

Shit. Was she married to the gnomes now? Was that gonna be her life? No, no, it was fine, gnome marriage wasn’t legally binding, she didn’t think, and even if it _was_ , it wasn’t legal for somebody to marry a whole bunch of people at once, and it definitely wasn’t legal for that somebody to be an unwilling participant. Therefore, any marriage contracts they may or may not have drawn up were null and void, legally speaking. Which meant she needed to escape. Which meant she needed to figure out where she was.

Wait, what about the blood-gnome? What was up with that? Or, shit, the floating glow-dude! What the heckity hecking heckfire was going on with _that_ shiz?

Suddenly, out of nowhere (or perhaps not truly nowhere; she just hadn’t examined where she was just yet, as she hadn’t looked up), a pair of arms wrapped around her, and her head was squished against a very masculine, yummy-smelling (the same smell as before, actually! What a lovely coincidence!) chest. Mr. Hugglebus reached up and threaded his fingers through Mabel’s hair, holding her head against him.

“Mabel,” a voice whispered, like its owner couldn’t believe he was getting to say her name. It was familiar, but also very much not, and Mabel was, like, off-the-charts levels of confuzzled. “Mabel,” the voice said again. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

It was hard to think with the pounding in her ears, but she did her best to ignore it. 

She had bigger things to deal with than a headache, no matter how nasty it was.

“Wh- whoa there, friend,” Mabel said shakily, putting her hand on his chest and pushing away from him lightly. Mr. Hugglebus pulled back enough for Mabel to get a proper look at him, and…

Wait. 

_What_?

“ _Dipper_?” she gasped. He said nothing. “What is _up_ with your hair, man?” she laughed. “Or- or your getup, like! What? You goin’ to a fancy party or something? No, no, wait!” she was giggling, and it hurt her head, but it was just so goddamn good to see him she didn’t care. “Okay okay, I know! You’re doing, like, a knock-off impersonation of Gideon, right?” He furrowed his brow, annoyance filling his ice blue eyes. 

But… wait. Ice blue eyes? Dipper has brown eyes. They were identical to hers. She knew this. She’d stared into those stupid-beautiful eyes of his a bazillion and one times. She knew her bro bro’s eyes, aight? She _knew_ those suckers. This guy, though. This guy was different. Like. _Different_ different. 

“Are you… are you Dipper? ‘Cause like. The Dipster I know won’t even wear color contacts for cosplay purposes, and those eyes ain’t blue naturally, so…”

It was several moments before he finally spoke. He was gazing at her with this weirdly intense look in his eyes (holy crap, those _eyes_ , they were so pretty, nobody’s eyes should be allowed to be that freakin’ blue) she’d never seen on anyone before.

“I’m not… _your_ Dipper,” his emphasis the ‘your’ was strange, condescending, as if he loathed saying it.

She scooted away, her back hitting the arm of the chaise. 

All she could think about was a gnome drenched in blood, babbling in terror before exploding violently. 

”Then who are you?” she whispered, eyes wide. 

He smiled, and not unkindly, either. It was… strange. It was a kind smile from someone who didn’t look like such things came to them naturally. It was nothing like her twin’s smile.

Nothing like it at all.

It did something to her insides. Something she didn’t understand. Something she didn’t know how to interpret or name. 

“Don’t worry,” he murmured, keeping his distance, his legs twitching as if he wanted to get closer to her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Okay,” she said, not believing him in the slightest. ‘Cause. Like. The blood-gnome. Had that been him? Had he done that? She hadn’t seen it, but in retrospect, it totally made sense for him to have done that somehow. “But who _are_ you?” she asked again.

“I’m something of an… alternate version of the Dipper you know.” The more he spoke, the more she found his voice to be different and strange. Plus, he looked so similar to Dipper, but Mabel only ever saw her bro’s birthmark once in a blue moon. This guy had it front and center, and his hair was slicked back, and she lowkey wanted to touch it, just to see what it felt like. His voice was deeper than Dipper’s. More monotone, too. It was bizarre.

It was… it was attractive, is what it was. His look and attitude, the whole shebang, it was just insanely attractive. _Wait, no, no_! Mabel thought to herself. _It’s cool, Mabel girl, you’re all good, everything’s a-okay, it’s just that he looks like your bro, alright? No big deal. Well, okay, you shouldn’t be having those kinds of thoughts about your bro, either, but we’re well past that._

“Alternate… version…?” Wait. Shit. Maybe he was… “Are you the anti-Dipper?” She whispered frantically, trying to back away more as if her back wasn’t already firmly pressed against the armrest. “There’s tons of different versions of me, I know that, but I’ve never seen another version of Dipper, and you look just freakin’ like him except for your whole… style and general demeanor, I guess, so-“ she was trying to get up, but holy hot pockets, that was some serious dizziness right there.

Moreover, was there another Mabel in this universe? She hadn’t seen another Mabel in years. It’d be… interesting to see one again. Wait, shit, if he was the anti-Dipper, there was the anti-Mabel somewhere around there, and Mabel was not at all confident she could currently best the anti-Mabel in a fight. And something told her the anti-Mabel wasn’t exactly one for fighting fair and waiting till she was ready. She wasn’t the meme-worth Inigo Montoya, and this wasn’t The Princess Bride.

Dammit. 

Wait, he’d said he’d never expected to see her again. And she’d definitely never met him before, she would’ve remembered a fancy, older version of her bro, which could only mean he was talking about the other Mabel. Had something happened to her? Had she left, maybe?

“I’m not,” he cut in quickly, moving towards her slowly, like she was a feral cat ready to book it at any moment. “I’m not the… anti-Dipper, or whatever it was you said.”

She looked around. They appeared to be in some sort of dressing room. No, wait, it was _Gideon’s_ dressing room! Except it wasn’t, because Not-Dipper was there, lounging on the ultra-fancy chaise as if he owned it, which he might very well have done, because Not-Dipper didn’t exactly look like he was a broke college student. 

He looked like he used hundred dollar bills as tissues like Woody Harrelson in Zombieland.

Still very much fighting the urge to attempt to GTFO, as the kids say, Mabel turned back to him. “What are you, then?” He blinked for a moment, as if he were surprised, and then she belted out more questions. “What’s your name? How old are you? You don’t look like you’re the same age as me, which is weird if we’re kinda-sorta-pseudo-twins. Why am I here? Where even _is_ here? How-“

“Okay, let’s do this properly, shall we?” He tilted his head when he spoke, the corners of his lips curling upwards in another one of those strange smiles that did something to Mabel’s insides. “One question at a time,” he said, holding up a long, slender finger. “You can ask me anything you want, and I promise to answer truthfully. However,” he crossed one leg over the other, his foot dangling off his knee, the arm closest to her draping casually over the back of the chaise, “for every question I answer, I get to ask one of you in return. You don’t have to answer me, of course, but if you choose not to, that’ll be the end of our little game,” he paused for a moment. “For the time being, at least. Sound fair?”

She nodded hesitantly. She could stop at any time, right?

“Go ahead, then,” he waved the hand that dangled haphazardly over the chaise.

“What’s your name?”

“Mason William Gleeful, but I’ve always been called Dipper,” he said easily, as if he’d been fully expecting that very question.

“Because of the birthmark, I assume,” Mabel was very careful not to phrase it as a question, not to raise the pitch in her voice at the end of her sentence. She didn’t know how he’d react if she asked two questions in a row.

“A fair assumption,” he agreed with a slight nod and another one of those smiles. _Ugh. Could ya not, man? Like, for real_ , Mabel thought. His smile was most _definitely_ not helping her nausea. “And your name? Your full name, if you would.”

“Oh, um,” was she seriously forgetting her own name? Jeez, Mabel, get it together, he’s not Dipper, get over it! “M- Mabel Caroline Pines,” she managed to stutter out.

“Pines, hm? Interesting. Alright then. Shall I go along with your other questions from before, as well?”

She shook her head. “Actually, I was wondering about your last name,” he raised his eyebrows at her and motioned for her to continue. “There’s a sort of… psychic, I guess is what you’d call him, in my universe, and he has that last name. Is that… I mean… we _are_ in what looks like his dressing room, so…”

“I did shows here,” he said quietly, a strange look in his eye, as if he wasn’t seeing her despite looking right at her. “Once upon a time.”

“Oh. I see,” she squeaked out.

His gaze sharpened on her again, and he was moving closer to her, and Mabel tried to back up further, her sneakers scrambling against the fabric of the chaise. _Eeek way too close way too close back the fudge up, man, what are you even-_

“Why were you in his dressing room?” He was right in front of her face by that point, like waaaaaaay too close, ‘cause their noses were almost brushing and she could see each individual eyelash, and god his eyes were even more startlingly beautiful up close, and she wanted to reach up and touch-

 _No no no no, bad, bad Mabel, he’s not your Dipper, this is a different version_! she told herself firmly. _No touchy_!

“We gave each other makeovers,” she said, trying very hard to keep her voice even. When he raised his eyebrows at her, she got mildly defensive. “I was twelve! He was… I dunno, ten or eleven! Jeez!” He chuckled at that, then leaned away from her, satisfied with her answer, she supposed, and resumed his previous position as if he’d never moved from it at all. 

As if he hadn’t just sent a chill down her spine that was… not altogether unpleasant, which was significantly more concerning than it would’ve been if she’d hated every second he’d been near her. 

She pursed her lips and put it from her mind. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-five,” he said easily. “And you?”

“Nineteen,” she told him quietly, surprised at his age. She glanced at the foot he’d balanced on his knee. 

His shoes were fancy, too. Everything about him seemed to be. “Not what you were expecting, I see,” he observed from her expressions. Damn her and her expressive face!

“Well, it makes sense, because you certainly _look_ older than… than my Dipper.” Her voice shook on the word ‘my’.

His hand clenched into a fist. 

She didn’t know what to think of it. Was he angry, or did it mean nothing?

“But it also doesn’t make sense, because if it’s a parallel universe, we should be the same age, I would think.”

“Well, not necessarily,” Not-Dipper reasoned. “In some universes, time moves at different rates, from what I’ve gathered. In our case, it’s the same, but it seems I was born earlier. I was born in 1993, whereas you were born in…” he thought for a moment, tilting his head to the side. “1999.”

“Oh.” She’d never noticed that when interacting with other Mabels. Perhaps it was simply because she was too preoccupied with not dying. It had seemed rather urgent at the time. 

“Indeed,” he nodded. “So, your questions,” he reminded her after a few seconds of silence.

“Right.” What had they been again? He kept _looking_ at her, she had to get him to stop _doing_ that. It was distracting. His eyes were distracting. She couldn’t think when they were in her, dammit. Oh! That was it! “Where are we?”

“My universe. I found you with and brought you here through a portal,” he stuck a hand in his pocket. “If you meant the locale, however, as I said before, this was our-“ he cut himself off, took a breath. There _was_ another Mabel, then. Where was she? “ _My_ dressing room until several years ago, when I stopped performing.”

“I… see,” she said slowly. So where was the other Mabel, then? Shouldn’t there be a fancy, blue-eyed, properly Adult™ version of herself somewhere? She looked around the dressing room (holy crapinoli, she didn’t think she’d ever seen so much blue in one room), but there were no signs of a woman anywhere. There were no perfume bottles or makeup on the vanity, no dresses on the clothing rack, nothing. 

How strange. 

“Why were you in Gravity Falls?” He asked. 

“To get away.” Helooked at her questioningly. Did it count if it was an unspoken question? She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t risking it. “I needed an escape. College can be… stressful.”

That wasn’t the full reason, of course, but she wasn’t lying, either. 

“Interesting.” He tapped his fingers on his leg. How could a person’s _fingers_ be pleasant to look at?

“Why did you bring me here?”

“You needed help,” he said simply, shrugging a shoulder. He winced slightly when he did, but just a bit; the change in expression so minor she wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all. “However did you find yourself kidnapped by _gnomes_ , of all things? Gnomes who wanted you for their queen, no less.”

She looked away. It’d been a long time since she had fought against anything but class schedules and exams she wasn’t prepared for.

“They… caught me off guard,” she told him quietly. “They tried something similar when I was a kid, but they lost. It never occurred to me that they might try again.”

“Gnomes are persistent little things,” he mused. “They dislike losing, and they are quite stubborn. It stands to reason that they’d try again if you’d beaten them before.” 

“What… what did you do?” Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “To the gnomes, I mean. Unless, of course, I’m misremembering, because there is every chance I am, what with the concussion I very likely have and all, so if I am just say the word, but it seemed pretty dang clear that-“

“I killed them,” he said bluntly. His face was bored, disinterested. Apathetic, even. It didn’t even seem to be bothering him. How could it not be bothering him? Unless…

Unless he’d killed before.

The human brain could get used to just about anything if given enough time.

“You- you killed them,” her voice was horrified, she knew. She could hear it in her tone. Yeah, she’d wanted to get away from them, she’d wanted them to leave her alone, and maybe she’d even wanted to give them a good whack, but she hadn’t wanted them _dead_.

“Of course I did,” he sounded surprised at her reaction. “They hurt you. They were going to hurt you far worse.”

“I know that,” she whispered. “I know that. But that doesn’t give you the right to just… you can’t be someone’s judge, jury, and executioner. That’s not right.”

“I only did it to save you, Mabel.” She had only heard Not-Dipper say her name once before.

It was different than when Dipper said it. Maybe it was because Not-Dipper’s voice was a little deeper, a little smoother-sounding?

“You weren’t safe. Not in your universe.” His eyes were burning, which was strange since they were the color of ice. “I can keep you safe. I _will_ keep you safe.”

“Ummm… that’s cool and all, but that’s pretty freakin’ unsettling, to have somebody just, like. ‘Splode a bunch of gnomes for you,” she eyed him warily, still trying to figure out how to get away from the dude without crawling. Would he get angry with her for not being appreciative? She didn’t want to see him angry. Would he hurt her?

“I don’t want you to be scared of me,” he told her quietly, his voice a little sad.

She almost lied and told him she wasn’t scared of him, that everything was hunky-dorey, and that he should smile.

She didn’t.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have, I dunno, made people explode in front of me?” She was being sarcastic, she knew, and that was probably a bad idea, but sometimes she just couldn’t help herself.

“Gnomes aren’t people, technically,” he reminded her.

“Semantics,” she waved his argument away. “They’re living creatures. Or they _were_ , anyway, before you decided to go and _massacre_ them.”

Not-Dipper had a look on his face that suggested he wasn’t opposed to killing living creatures, whether they were human or not. 

Maybe he already had. 

Mabel hoped he hadn’t, but something in the way he held himself gave her a sneaking suspicion that he had. 

“I’m sorry if that… bothers you, or if it scares you. I don’t want to make you feel those things,” he sighed. “That said, I think it’d be best if I were up front with you: if put in the same situation again -if you were in danger again, that is to say- I’d do the same thing.”

She crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and glared at him. “Take me home, please.”

There was panic in his eyes. “I- I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“The portal… it doesn’t work like that. I’ll have to find another way to get you back,” he explained. She was still glaring at him when he continued. “But for the time being, you can stay with me. If you want,” he turned his body to face her for the first time since he’d hugged her.

“Well. I suppose that’ll have to- WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?” She was pointing, horrified, to his shoulder, where one arrow, perhaps about a foot long, was embedded in his shoulder. Another was in his side, the one that had been facing away from her. Blood had seeped through to pool around the entry wounds, though the bleeding seemed to have stopped. His eyes followed her shaking finger.

“Oh, right. I got shot with a couple of arrows. Just gnome ones, though, so they’re quite small,” she dropped her hand back to the soft fabric of the chaise. 

“Okay, so you saved me, and you got hurt doing it,” she was saying this to herself, staring at her knees and speaking as if he couldn’t hear her when he could _absolutely_ hear her. “Okay. Okay. This is fine, this is fine, Mabel girl.” She looked back up at him. “Okay, let’s go… wherever we need to go for you to treat those… yeah…”

“Very well,” he agreed. “I’ll take you there.”

He helped her to her feet, and she still found herself a bit dizzy, wobbling a bit.

“Would you like me to carry you?” he offered, steadying her with a hand on her arm.

“Carry m- say what now?”

“I don’t mind, particularly if you’re having difficulty walking still.” As if that explanation was adequate! Why was homeboy cool with it at all, though? She’d gotten a hella nasty gash on her leg once in PE, can ya guess how many people offered to freakin’ _carry_ her to the nurse? Zero, is the answer. _Zero_. 

What a weird dude. And Mabel was in love with her gay twin brother, so if she, of all people, thinks you’re weird, then you are _weird_.

“Nope!” she squeaked out way too quickly to sound even remotely close to being normal. “I’m good on the carrying front, thanks! Got it covered!”

“Suit yourself.” Ugh why, _why_ was he smiling that smile again, it reminded her of Dipper and also not, and it made her nervous as all hell. “This way.” And with that, he promptly strolled out of his dressing room, clearly expecting her to follow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took her awhile to figure things out, huh? Our girl’s gotta concussion, so I think we should cut her a bit of slack, don’t you?


	5. Not Gravity Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She’s not in Kansas anymore you guys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys this has been sitting in my files for like two days and I keep forgetting to post it so here ya go

Chapter Four: Not Gravity Falls 

_When I wake up, the dream isn't done, I wanna see your face and know I've made it home. If nothing is true, what more can I do?_ \- All Time Low, Painting Flowers

There was something… _off_ about this Gravity Falls. Which was, of course, to be expected; alternate reality and all that. It wasn’t as different from her Gravity Falls as Not Dipper was from her Dipper, it just… It just felt strange. Like it was just a little bit wrong. It was darker. Everything was darker. She didn’t quite understand why.

She was still somewhat out of it, and walking was a chore. She really missed her bike. Why didn’t she have her bike again? Right, because she’d been abducted by gnomes, and then abducted-slash-rescued by an alternate version of her bro. 

He was walking beside her, this alternate Dipper, and there was something different in the way he held himself. Her Dipper was… awkward, for lack of a better word. Adorably so, of course; it was one of the many things that had made her fall in love with him to begin with.

But this version… this version of Dipper walked with an easy sort of confidence Mabel wasn’t used to seeing, not on anybody, or at least not to that degree. He wasn’t awkward. Not even a little. He was sure of himself, perhaps even arrogant. He stood at his full height, not slouching or hunching his shoulders.

He didn’t just walk, either. He strutted, and he didn’t seem to notice when the townspeople (who had all stopped dead in their tracks and were looking at her, slack-jawed and wide-eyed) gave them both an unnecessarily wide berth. He didn’t glance at them, not even briefly to take mental note of their locations in relation to his own. He simply continued on as if they weren’t there, as if they didn’t exist.

They were looking at her with such unmistakable horror that Mabel had to say something. 

“Hey,” she murmured at Not Dipper. “What’s the deal with these guys?”

“Hm?” He didn’t appear to have been paying attention to them, so when she voiced her question, he glanced around haphazardly. “Oh, I suppose they might think you’re… the other Mabel.”

“Huh. Weird.” Before she could comment further, her words were cut off. 

“ _Mabel_?” came a shocked voice that was almost familiar, but not quite. And when Mabel slowed her pace along the sidewalk and turned her gaze to her right, she found herself looking at a very… well, it was just odd, wasn’t it, almost as odd as Not Dipper’s mannerisms and general Not Dipper-ness. The contrast of these weird versions to the people she knew was lowkey freakin’ her out. 

It was… “Pacifica?” It did very much appear to be Pacifica. The girl looked like Pacifica. She had the same face, eyes, and general appearance, but it looked like Pacifica if Pacifica had aged several years and gotten a hippie costume from a Halloween store. Or a Summerween store. Y’know. Whatever. 

“You’re, uh… how are you…?” Pacifica was asking, and Mabel still felt a bit wobbly, but she smiled at this strange version of Pacifica all the same.

“Hi!” Mabel greeted with a cheerful wave, sticking her hand out for the other girl to shake. “I’m Mabel, nice to meet ya!” There was murmuring of words from the crowd that Mabel couldn’t hear or understand, and Pacifica was looking at Mabel’s hand like it had a shark’s mouth and the corresponding number of teeth (which was, fun fact, three thousand), and would give her hand similar treatment to that of those teenagers in Jaws. 

Realizing Pacifica wasn’t gonna take her hand, Mabel lowered it with a pout. Not Dipper wasn’t looking at her. He’d stopped walking when she had, but he was staring off into space, his expression blank.

“I… I don’t understand,” Pacifica said, eyeing Mabel warily. “How are you… how are you here?”

Suddenly, Mabel remembered: ‘nother universe, concussion, blah blah blah. 

“Right!” She snapped her fingers. “Sorry, I totes magoats forgot!” Pacifica (and everyone else) raised their eyebrows at her. “Have a bit of a concussion here,” she explained, knocking on the side of her head. “Yowch, prolly shouldn’t’ve done that. Anyway, the long and short of it is,” she paused for dramatic effect, “I’m from an alternate dimension! Ta-da!” She did jazz hands. Dramatic effect really was important. Essential, even.

“Okay,” Pacifica said slowly, looking immensely confused. “So, how, exactly…” she glanced at Not Dipper, and her eyes widened. “Holy crap, what happened?!” she exclaimed, rushing towards him. “Are you okay? We need to get you to a hospital, ommigod!”

He rolled his eyes, allowing them to land on her. “It’s none of your concern.” His voice was bored, disinterested, like the absolute _last_ thing in the world he wanted to be doing was to be talking to her, and the fact that he was having to was nothing more than an irritating waste of time. 

“Worry not, little missy!” Mabel gave her a double thumbs up. “We’re gonna get it taken care of and the not-broseph over here will be a-okay!”

Nobody else said anything. Pacifica was still looking at her nervously. If they thought she was the alternate universe’s Mabel and they were acting like, well, _that_ , then what in the hell had her other self _done_ to them? Dang diggity, they were looking at Not Dipper the same way; what had _he_ done to them?

She glanced at him. He wasn’t looking at Pacifica anymore. He was staring off into space again.

“Um, well, I-“ 

Pacifca’s nervous stuttering was cut off by Not Dipper sighing, taking Mabel’s hand in his, and pulling her forward again. “Time to go,” he said, not bothering to look over his shoulder. 

Had he always been so... apathetic? Mabel wasn’t sure. Her head was still pounding somewhat, and she couldn’t remember suuuuuper clearly, but she was pretty sure he’d been paying attention to her before. In fact, he’d been focused entirely on her, she had thought. But just then, he wasn’t focusing on anything. He’d totally snubbed Pacifica, too!

“Where are we going, exactly?” Mabel asked, doing her best to wave over her shoulder at the bewildered and fearful-looking townspeople as Not Dipper dragged her along behind him, his hand gentle but firm around hers. 

“Home,” Not Dipper said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Not _her_ home, obviously, but his. Was it her shaken brain, or was his distinct lack of the word ‘my’ weird?

“Not… uh…” she took a moment to collect her thoughts. Stupid concussion. What was that word again? “Not a hospital?”

“Not a hospital,” he agreed.

“O...kay…?” 

After several minutes of him walking in strides that were a bit much for Mabel, particularly since she was having difficulty walking at _all_ , he looked over his shoulder at her with one of those stupid stupid _stupid_ grins-

“You seem to be having a bit of trouble there, Mabel dear. You’re quite sure you don’t want me to carry you again?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” She nodded emphatically. But, wait a second. “Again? What do you mean again?”

“Oh,” he glanced over his shoulder at her for a second, as if he’d forgotten he’d mentioned it to begin with. “I carried you earlier. When you were unconscious, you know.”

“R- right,” she stuttered. He’d _carried_ her? How terribly embarrassing. She was far too heavy to be carried, and she was massively uncomfortable with this random version of her twin she loved in a very un-sister-type way knowing that she was far too heavy to be carried. “Thank you for saving me, by the way.” 

“Of course,” he said easily. “Though please do try not to get into too much trouble now that you’re here.” He paused for a moment. “I’d hate to see something happen to you.”

“Honestly, the only place weird stuff ever happens to me is Gravity Falls,” she chuckled a bit. Her own need to escape had trapped her in a way, hadn’t it? “I’m probably no safer here than I was in my dimension.”

They’d migrated from sidewalks to dirt walkways along the side of a long, winding road that Mabel couldn’t see the end of. 

“You’re safe with me,” he told her firmly. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

He was pulling her along the dirt path still, the earth and gravel crunching beneath her shoes. It was fairly dark by this point, so the chill of the evening air bit into the bare skin her shorts and loose crop top revealed.

“Sorry for complaining, but like. We’ve been walkin’ for a hot minute here, and I’m not seeing any houses in sight, so I’m just…'' she paused to take a break. Words were hard when one had a concussion. “Just kinda wondering if we’ll ever actually get to your far-far-away abode, y’know?”

“We’re almost there,” he assured her, and she could’ve sworn he squeezed her hand, but she really wasn’t sure. She might’ve imagined it. Actually, she probably imagined it. Almost certainly.

Which, side note, but why was he still holding her hand? They weren’t exactly walking side by side, no, but she was close enough behind him to where he didn’t really need to lead her anywhere.

Before she could formulate the words to question it, however, a wall came into view. A very high wall. Perhaps ten feet? Mabel didn’t know; she’d never been great at math. Sue her. It was stone, it looked like, but it was difficult to tell for certain because it was covered in ivy from top to bottom. 

“You see?” He smiled at her slightly. “We’re there.”

The road they were walking beside appeared to end at a very large, ornate wrought iron gate that the wall-slash-fence appeared to house, and beyond that lay a driveway, leading to…

A… castle? It certainly _looked_ like a castle. It was very very tall, and she couldn’t see much, but it definitely looked like a castle. 

She sped up her pace a bit so she could match his long strides and poke him lightly on the arm. He looked down at her with mild amusement, it looked like. “Hey, uh…” he raised his eyebrows at her. “Is that where you live?”

“Yes, that’s why we’re here,” he said as if it were obvious. As if anyone _living in a goddamn castle_ in the year of our lord 2019 was an obvious conclusion for somebody to jump to. 

She noticed that some of his hair had fallen from its slicked back style and was falling over his birthmark. She wondered what it would look like down. She wondered what it would feel like. She wondered- _no no no, bad Mabel, very bad, he’s not your Dipper_!

“So…” she trailed off for a second. “Just to be clear, so we’re like, one-hundred-and-ten percent on the same page here, you live in a castle. Have… have I got that right, oooorrrrrr…?”

“If you consider this a castle, then yes, I suppose.” Not Dipper was looking down at her again, and he looked like he found her surprise quite funny. Which she didn’t exactly appreciate, but y’know. Beggars can’t choose their rescuers and all that.

They’d finally reached the gate, and it appeared to have a very large G in very fancy cursive on it.

He pressed his thumb to an electronic pad. The gate creaked open, and he strolled through it, pulling her along after him. It closed again as soon as they went through, and she found herself looking around every way she could without making herself all dizzy again.

They navigated around what appeared to be a hedge maze (that she would later discover was also in the shape of a giant cursive G), and it was several more minutes before they reached the overly tall wooden doors.

It wasn’t until he pushed the door open, taking his hand from hers in the process, that she realized he’d never let go of her hand. He’d been holding it the entire time, and she’d never even noticed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah he lives in a fuckin castle and yeah I based it off a real one too, will provide pictures upon request. I have multiple Pinterest boards for this fic lol


End file.
